Jackie Selebi ordered ten boxes of post-apartheid files sealed
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Daily Maverick
Former South African colonel Louis Bester says Jackie Selebi, then national police chief, ordered him to seal ten boxes containing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s master files. He gave this testimony to the Khampepe Commission, which is investigating delays in post-apartheid prosecutions, according to the Daily Maverick.
Retired South African police colonel Louis Bester told the Khampepe Commission that he had sealed ten boxes of files linked to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the instructions of Jackie Selebi, then national police commissioner. He was testifying on Wednesday at a hearing into delayed prosecutions, according to the Daily Maverick.
Bester explained that the documents were kept under lock and key in his office and that his role was limited to safeguarding them and obtaining forensic analysis of a disputed memorandum. The document, written in 2003 by prosecutor Anton Ackermann, was allegedly altered to bear the date 2006 and support claims that his unit was preparing to arrest 37 ANC members, including former president Thabo Mbeki.
The colonel said Selebi had summoned him on 27 August 2007 to discuss the memorandum. It was one of 73 original decisions and recommendations signed in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s master file, which was transferred to the police by the National Prosecuting Authority in 2004.
The hearing is part of debates about post-apartheid prosecutions, after Thabo Mbeki denied any interference in post-apartheid justice on 20 October 2026. On the same day, he also called for accountability over 300 abandoned apartheid cases.
